Chapter 36

The letters of Lady Laura informed her friends, that she and Colonel
Denbigh had decided to remain with his uncle until the recovery of the
latter was complete, and then to proceed to Denbigh Castle, to meet the
Duke and his sister during the approaching holidays.

Emily was much relieved by this postponement of an interview which she
would gladly have avoided for ever; and her aunt sincerely rejoiced that
her niece was allowed more time to eradicate impressions, which, she saw
with pain, her charge had yet a struggle to overcome.

There were so many points to admire in the character of Denbigh; his
friends spoke of him with such decided partiality; Dr. Ives, in his
frequent letters, alluded to him with so much affection; that Emily
frequently detected herself in weighing the testimony of his guilt, and
indulging the expectation that circumstances had deceived them all in
their judgment of his conduct. Then his marriage would cross her mind; and
with the conviction of the impropriety of admitting him to her thoughts at
all, would come the mass of circumstantial testimony which had accumulated
against him.

Derwent served greatly to keep alive the recollections of his person,
however; and as Lady Harriet seemed to live only in the society of the
Moseleys, not a day passed without giving the Duke some opportunity of
indirectly preferring his suit.

Emily not only appeared, but in fact was, unconscious of his admiration;
and entered into their amusements with a satisfaction that was increased
by the belief that the unfortunate attachment her cousin Chatterton had
once professed for herself, was forgotten in the more certain enjoyments
of a successful love.

Lady Harriet was a woman of manners and character very different from
Emily Moseley; yet had she in a great measure erased the impressions made
by the beauty of his kinswoman from the bosom of the baron.

Chatterton, under the depression of his first disappointment, it will be
remembered, had left B---- in company with Mr. Denbigh. The interest of
the duke had been unaccountably exerted to procure him the place he had so
long solicited in vain, and gratitude required his early acknowledgments
for the favor. His manner, so very different from a successful applicant
for a valuable office, had struck both Derwent and his sister as singular.
Before, however, a week's intercourse had passed between them, his own
frankness had made them acquainted with the cause; and a double wish
prevailed in the bosom of Lady Harriet, to know the woman who could resist
the beauty of Chatterton, and to relieve him from the weight imposed on
his spirits by disappointed affection.

The manners of Lady Harriet Denbigh were not in the least forward or